When to properly put a book down | The Modern Hidalgo

on
why I’ve grown to dislike Collins Classics.
THE MODERN HIDALGO: Entry_032.
Written: Tuesday. August 20, 2019.

Awhile ago, I was having some trouble with the next book that I was supposed to read. I had just finished reading Slipt by Alan Dean Foster yesterday night. And I had planned to read another of his books, called Quozl. It was a science fiction novel about a race of bunny looking aliens from outer space headed towards earth, in order to live in it. Or at least that’s was what I understood from the plot written on the back of the book cover.



I had started reading it just awhile ago, as one would normally do when trying to start to read a new novel. To my disappointment, the first chapter of the book contained paragraphs upon paragraphs of sentences that made no sense at all to me whilst reading the book.

The words were too complicated, the sentence structure was upside down, it was as if the writer had written this story trying to sound smart, by using words that need a dictionary-check in order to understand what it means, because we wouldn’t normally even use it in conversations.

I’ve dealt with books like this before. I’ve dealt with writing-styles like this before. I’m not a big fan of it, I’ll give it to you straight. Now I’m not a smart guy, I’ll give that to you straight as well. But I’m a decent enough learned man to know if something just isn’t worth your time. And with this book, called Quozl, after finishing reading the first chapter of the story, I have decided not to continue on with reading it.

At this point, where I have experienced a couple of books that have either a difficult vocabulary, or an aged language, or a distinct accent from one of its characters or better yet all of its characters, I tend to dislike these kinds of books.

So what I do, or what I did, because I’ve only done it once so far like this, is that I immediately put the book down, and browsed through my many book collections, in order for me to find a new book to read.

I should have just skipped that decision making process and went on with the next book, which is gonna be Spiderwick Chronicles, but instead of doing that, I went and picked up Arabian Nights: the Collins Classics Edition.


And if you’re a fond reader of this here Journal of mine, which I doubt that you are—you’re probably just me from the future, reading this, looking for something good to use for a later project, maybe a vlog of some sort. But if you are one of those loyal readers, then you know that I just really dislike the Collins Classics books at this point, because they’ve let me down so much.

So I tried reading Arabian Nights, and I just couldn’t even deal with that book at all. It also had a bad writing style. I’m getting pretty nit-picky when it comes to choosing the books I read, I’m just now noticing. But it comes with the reading ethic that I have, I guess.

I’ve already read 14 books this year. 3 books, I’ve tried to read, but never finished. 2 books, I have put down, because I noticed the familiar queues of it being a bad book to read.


Anyway, I was disappointed with Arabian Nights as well, so I meditated for a while. Meaning, I stared at my many book shelves, and tried to debate on whether or not I should pick up The Lightning Thief, which is the first book of the Percy Jackson series. Or pick up the Incredible Hulk, which is a novelization of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film, starring Edward Norton (who immediately got replaced for another actor due to scheduling conflicts. Though I doubt that was the only reason).

So why I picked up The Incredible Hulk was this: I’ve re-read The Lightning Thief 2 times already. Reading it again would be okay and all, but that would mean I would have to schedule it for a binge read. Meaning, I would have to read books 2–5 afterwards. Because it’s just weird to be picking up a book that’s clearly a part of a series of other books.


Although, come to think of it, Ender’s Game is part of a book series, in which I have read it’s sequel a year later. Little Fuzzy is part of a book series, but I’ve already discussed the reason for that in a previous entry. And, huh, The Incredible Hulk is part of a fucking cinematic universe, so why in the hell would I pick that up instead of the Percy Jackson book?

Cause I haven’t read it at all ever since my dad bought it for me back in high-school. I don’t know why. I think I tried to read it back then, but I didn’t understand it, so I put it down.

Luckily, at this age, I’m finally able to understand most of what I’m reading.

Bottom line: I picked The Incredible Hulk. The writing style is great. I might learn a few things with this book. Way to go Peter David. But we’ll see how it fairs once I’ve actually finished the book.

* * *

I’ve been thinking a lot about the weekly story I’m going to start writing on Friday. I still haven’t figured out a title for it. I haven’t figured out what type of story I’m gonna write, or how long I’m gonna write it.

But I have been thinking about writing it for a whole year. Weekly, of course. That would mean it would have 52 chapters of a thousand words (or more. 1K is just a checkpoint).

Although, what would that mean for my other projects; my other story ideas. Where am I gonna put the time to write them, while I’m writing this weekly story, which doesn’t even have a name yet?

Maybe I should just really allot a full year of writing this story out, to see where it goes. And then, after a year, if I’m feeling like I can move on to better projects, then I’ll finish the story.

But then again, if I’m only writing this thing per week, not being able to change some things while I’m in the process of writing it, since this weekly story is sort of a “live” broadcast, since it’s supposed to be published per week, and not edited in terms of changing a major part of the flow of where the story is going, but to be edited in terms of grammatical corrections — then I’m probably gonna have to find a way to work within a 52 chapter story.

I guess this is how the story is right now:
  • No title yet.
  • No Characters in mind.
  • No actual story in mind.
  • No genre in mind either.
  • I can’t change any chapter, once it is written.
  • And I have 52 chapters to do so.
Damn.
* * *


* * *



Comments

Post a Comment